Outside of the sacred Toy Story trilogy, Pixar has let us down in the continuing stories of our favorite characters. Fans have begged for a sequel to The Incredibles (which seems like a logical franchise) for years to no avail. Instead we got stuck with an unwanted Cars sequel that seemed to be released just to sell toys. Finding Dory is still a year away so right now we’ll have to settle for something slightly different; it’s a Monsters, Inc. prequel showing us how our favorite characters, Mike and Sully, met in Monsters University.

Monsters University takes place before the days when the duo were setting scare records. In fact, Mike and Sullivan are arch-rivals for much of Monsters University. Mike sees Sullivan as a monster squandering his gifts and Sullivan sees Mike as a know-it-all that couldn’t scare anybody. The two duke it out in Scare School, but run into hot water with the Dean (Voiced By Helen Mirren). A series of events cause the combatants to team up and join a fraternity in order to win the annual scare games.

Monsters University seems to take its cues from Revenge of the Nerds as the determined Mike and Sullivan take a rag-tag nerdy frat and turn them into a scare force to be reckoned with. The Oozma Kappa brothers are great additions to the story and provide both kids and grown ups with fresh laughs. Monsters University is an odd couple comedy that turns into a buddy flick by the time the credits role. That being said Monsters University does lack the heart of the original Monsters, Inc. If you loved the relationship between Sully and Boo in the original, you may be disappointed with the lack of sentimental moments in Monsters University.

That doesn’t mean Monsters University is a bad movie. In fact it’s a very funny film and the animation from Pixar is top notch as always. Monsters University may not live up to the original, but it’s still a very funny comedy and better than 90 percent of the kids-films out there. Kids will love the slap stick antics during the scare games and parents will have a few jokes of their own to chuckle over. What Monsters University lacks in heart, it makes up for in laughs. Overall, I give Monsters University 3 out of 4 potatoes.